


Magolor and Daroach's Support Circle for the Reformed Villain

by KoruChaos



Series: Presto, it's Kirby! [2]
Category: Kirby (Video Games)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, DMK referred to as Dromeda bc I don't like calling him Dark Meta Knight, Distrust, Gen, Gijinka, Making Friends, Not related to Reconcile, Passive-aggression, Rated T for swearing, Some angst (bc look at these guys' backstories), attempt at fluff, everyone is trying, more TBA - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 14:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30023064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoruChaos/pseuds/KoruChaos
Summary: Magolor wants Meta Knight, King Dedede and Bandanna Dee to trust him again, but it's going to take a lot of work. When Meta Knight gives him an option to help speed up the process (and essentially tricks him into saying yes), he's too desperate to back out and agrees to officially go along with the plan.The good news: he gets to have help from Daroach.The bad news: since he was the first to reform, it's now his job to rehabilitate a bunch of ex-villains, and Daroach can only help three days out of the week.He can only hope that this won't go as terribly as he thinks it will.
Relationships: platonic unless stated otherwise
Series: Presto, it's Kirby! [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2208600
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. Two Idiots Make Very Bad Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Magolor and Meta Knight are passive-aggressive and an agreement is tentatively made.

“You want me to do _what?_ ”

Meta Knight scowled behind his helm, though he doubted that the man across from him would ever be intimidated by him. “Did you not hear me?” he asked coldly. “Somehow, those massive ears of yours make me doubt that.”

Magolor stared at Meta Knight with wide eyes. He looked comically tiny all the way across the long table, despite all of his visible fur standing on end. “No, no, I heard you,” he said quickly, “I'm just not sure why you're trusting me with something so important. Like, you don't trust me at all, why are you leaving me in charge of a bunch of destructive hooligans when you think I'm the same way as them?”

“Because I'm giving you a chance to prove you aren't,” Meta Knight stated. “And _if_ you can manage to get them under control while not doing anything destructive yourself, I'll have no choice but to fully trust you as a Star Ally.”

Magolor slumped onto the table. “You're really setting me up to fail, but you know that, don't you?” he said exasperatedly. “Yeah, you do. You look _insanely_ smug right now. I still don't get why you're putting me in charge of a bunch of other ex-villains who are still essentially going through withdrawals, though. I get that I'm technically the first 'reformed' villain since Daroach never really was one, but don't you think you should leave this to someone more experienced with handling a bunch of delinquents?”

Meta Knight laced his fingers together and let his head rest atop them, a spark of malicious amusement glittering in his eyes. “Daroach isn't going to be here all the time,” he pointed out, “and he has his own team to take care of. I'll allow you to ask him for help if you need it, but you aren't going to be able to rely on him.”

Magolor nodded and gave a pathetic attempt to smooth down the fur under his clothes, leaving odd patches where it stuck up under the fabric next to parts that lay flat. If he didn't know any better, Meta Knight would've thought Magolor wasn't angry at all. “Right, right,” the alien sighed. “I'm going to tell you 'I told you so' when this all goes to hell, I hope you know that.” A tiny glimmer of Magolor's typical personality shone through when he added, more confidently, “And I'll make sure everyone knows this was your idea too, so they won't just blame me.” Then his ears pinned themselves to the sides of his head as he quietly realized “Shit, I just agreed to this, didn't I?”

“That you did,” Meta Knight said, unable to keep the priggishness out of his voice. “Perhaps you should think things through more thoroughly before you say them.” He leaned forwards slightly, asking “You aren't going to back out _now,_ are you?”

“Well, I can't now,” Magolor said waspishly. It was taking an upsetting amount of concentration to keep himself from fluffing up in annoyance again. “ _Thanks for that, by the way,_ ” he grumbled. In his own language, he added “I can't fucking believe how stupid I am. Way to go, Mr. 'I must atone for my actions at all costs'.”

Outwardly, his annoyance didn't show and he merely appeared sullen. Granted, that wouldn't have been an odd reaction either. “Do you have any plans?” Meta Knight asked, trying to prod so he could see what would get a rise out of Magolor.

“Absolutely nothing,” Magolor replied, voice monotone. “Gimme a week and I can probably come up with something, but I'm not gonna have anything this early.” The hairs on the back of Meta Knight's neck rose as the distinctly unsettling feeling of being stared at by someone whose eyes already seemed to look everywhere at once set in. “Just let me have a while to figure out what I'm going to do, then I can try my hand at it.”

“And you're absolutely certain you won't back out on this?” Meta Knight drawled. “I do _want_ to trust you-” hah, no he didn't- “ _but_ you're going to have to prove to me that I can.”

“You are the worst liar this side of Halcandra,” Magolor stated bluntly, “and I take care of Kirby and Marx every other day.” Brushing a small tuft of his own fur off the front of his tabard, he calmly continued “As I said, let me have a week to plan and I should be able to have something decent in mind by the end of the week.”

Meta Knight internally wished that Magolor wasn't still such a good actor. It would make being around him so much easier if he could just figure out what was going through the alien's head sometimes. Instead of voicing his frustration, he simply nodded. “I am going to hold you to your word on that,” he said. “If you don't have them out of everyone's hair for a while by the end of the week, we're going to have to have a _talk._ ”

“Sure, sure, whatever,” Magolor said exasperatedly. If his eyes weren't solid, glowing yellow, it would have been obvious that he'd rolled his eyes, but his attitude gave off that impression anyways. “Who am I supposed to get involved with this?”

“Marx, Dromeda, Taranza, Susie, and the Mage Sisters,” Meta Knight listed off. He could only hope that Magolor was too far away to notice the shudder that had passed through him when he mentioned Susie.

“Why Taranza?” Magolor asked. “I mean, I can understand why you want someone to keep an eye on the other six, but Taranza was basically being possessed and just wanted to help his friend. He doesn't have an evil bone in his body.” His ears were back to being mostly upright, though one drooped down slightly further than the other.

“I'd rather not take any chances,” Meta Knight said blankly. “As we've likely shown by both King Dedede and I getting possessed multiple times over the years, it seems that getting possessed once leaves you more prone to getting possessed again later down the line. Perhaps having a support group of others like him will help keep that from happening to him.”

That seemed to be reasonable enough for Magolor, because he nodded quickly (or perhaps it was just because he was already close friends with the Floralian and wanted to keep him safe). “Alright,” he said absently. His ears were shoved back again, a gesture that Meta Knight hoped was a display of genuine concern and not just another attempt to manipulate him. “I guess that's fair enough,” Magolor eventually said, apparently refocused on what was currently happening. Looking up at Meta Knight, he asked “May I leave? If I'm going to come up with an even half-decent plan, I'm going to need all the time I can get.”

“Yes, you can leave,” Meta Knight said. Frankly, he was glad to get Magolor off the Halberd; the few other times Magolor had been aboard, he'd expressed interest in learning more about it (the weapons systems in particular), and Axe Knight had been so excited to finally have someone to talk tech with that he'd nearly offered to tell before Trident Knight had stopped him. “Don't touch anything and don't talk to anyone,” he added coldly.

Magolor, as per usual, completely ignored the implied threat. Despite his tiny stature, he never seemed to be intimidated by anything or anyone at all. He just stood up and left at a frustratingly leisurely pace without another word, seemingly just as annoyed with Meta Knight's presence as Meta Knight was with Magolor's.

If Meta Knight had hearing as good as Magolor's, he would've heard the alien grumbling to himself about how ridiculous and unfair the situation was. As it was, he only breathed a sigh of relief as he heard Magolor's heavy, echoing footsteps trail off down the corridors.

Hopefully he hadn't made as huge a mistake as he felt like he had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, you know how I said Reconcile was an apology in advance for a few stories I wanted to write in the future? Yeah, this is the first one. Don't get me wrong, I still love Metalor, but I have just as much fun writing them being passive-aggressive jackasses to each other as I do writing them being Soft™. They're primarily going to be snarking at each other throughout this fic (on the rare occasion that Meta shows up for more than five seconds), so my apologies if you wanted more soft Metalor from me (don't worry, I have more of it in store, I just wanted to get this out first).
> 
> Aside from that, welcome to the shitshow! I'm not totally sure what the next chapter will be, but it'll either be Magolor talking to Daroach about the plan or jumping straight to the actual support group (I've never been to one though, so please correct me when I fuck shit up).
> 
> ~~also hey I still like comments and when people ask me about my headcanons, pls talk to me I'm so lonely~~


	2. Tell the Class About Yourself!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which both friendly and unfriendly acquaintances are made, and Magolor tries to hide the fact that he's actually stressed out of his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Small A/N because I forgot to mention it last chapter and not everyone reads all the tags:_ Dark Meta Knight is referred to as Dromeda here because I think Dark Meta Knight sounds ridiculous and I wanted to make it absolutely clear that he and Meta Knight are separate people when they eventually show up together in one of my fics/one of these chapters.

For the time being, everything was quiet inside the Lor Starcutter. However, Magolor knew it wouldn't be for much longer, so he was spending that small amount of time left to himself trying to keep himself calm. He was settled into a plush armchair in the Lor's library, drinking a cup of tea and reading a book as if he _weren't_ actually about to be in the most anxiety-inducing situation of his comparatively short life. It didn't stop the ice-cold claws of fear from sinking themselves into his heart, of course, but it made it marginally more bearable.

This tiny modicum of peace was quite abruptly interrupted by the Lor loudly announcing **"You have visitors, Captain. Shall I let them in?"**

Magolor almost choked on his tea at the sudden warning, but set down his tea and book as calmly as he could. He rose to his feet somewhat shakily, took several steadying breaths, and blankly said "Yes, Lor, please let them in."

 **"But you are distressed because of them,"** She said, concern clear in Her tone. **"Why should I let them in if you do not want them here?"**

Magolor pinched the bridge of his muzzle and shook his head, letting out a sigh too tired for someone who had woken up mere hours ago. "Lor, I promised I would deal with them," he said exasperatedly. "I can't back out of this, and I can't have you making it look like I backed out. I'm sorry, and I know this isn't good for me, but I _need_ to do this, alright? Please."

The Lor was quiet for a long moment, then let out a noise of frustration. **"Fine,"** She said flatly. She knew that She couldn't convince him of anything except his current plan when he was in what She'd dubbed 'repentance mode', so She wasn't going to try. The door to the Lor slid open to let their guests in, and Magolor smoothed down the fur of his tail before drifting out of the library to greet them.

The group had settled more or less into a circle just as Magolor walked into the room, and he decided to sit between Marx and Daroach. "Well, I'm glad to see everyone made it!" he said cheerfully, forcing his tail to wag in an excited manner. To almost everyone else, he seemed perfectly content to be doing this, but Daroach knew better from the horribly distressed phone calls he'd been privy to throughout the past week. "I'm sorry if this is a bit too early for anyone, but I can try to work out something better if you have any suggestions!"

Fortunately, nobody seemed to have any objections, as they simply stayed quiet to let him keep talking. Daroach spoke up instead, saying "I'm aware it's a bit cliché, but I'd like to start by introducing ourselves. I can go first." Clearing his throat, he said "My name is Daroach, and I run the Squeak Squad. I'm a treasure hunter and thief by trade, and I stole something that happened to have a dark force trapped inside. It possessed me, and I had to have the curse beaten out of me, more or less." He turned his head to look at Magolor, asking "Would you like to go next?"

"Sure," Magolor replied. He seemed to smile as he spoke, though it appeared slightly forced. "I'm Magolor, I'm an alien from the planet of Halcandra. I tricked Kirby and his friends into helping me repair the Lor and then defeat Landia so I could steal the Master Crown, but it turns out it had a personality of its own and it warped my goals into its own, then basically killed me. Got to come back to life around a year later, though, and I've been trying to atone ever since."

Marx adjusted his hat before he said anything. "Name's Marx, I'm twelve, I'm from Popstar. Did pretty much the same thing as Mags, 'cept not as bad. Just wanted to take over Popstar." He shot Magolor a look, muttering "But I guess he didn't really wanna take anything over anyways."

Dromeda crossed his arms and glared at everyone around him, then said "I am Sir Dromeda of the Mirror World. I do not remember much of what happened during or before Kirby's... _adventure_ through my world, but I was seemingly mind-controlled by the Mirror World's equivalent to Nightmare, and freed from his control upon his death." He narrowed his eyes and stared directly into Magolor's, giving a low-pitched growl of "However, I _refuse_ to become as disgustingly _soft_ as this universe's inhabitants." He seemed very surprised when Magolor only appeared to grin at him, clearly not scared of him in the slightest.

Taranza smiled softly and brushed one of his hands through his hair, nearly knocking his helmet off his head. "My name is Taranza, and I'm the current regent of Floralia. I wanted to help my friend and got carried away with it." His smile turned somewhat sad as he added "I miss her, but I think I'm getting better."

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Susie coughed and began speaking. "I'm Susanna Patrya Haltmann, but you may call me Susie." She dusted something off her skirt before continuing. "I was assisting someone close to me, though they didn't recognize who I was. This caused an _unfortunate incident_ on Popstar," she paused for a second to glare at Magolor and Taranza, practically daring them to contradict her. "I like to think that I have been less intrusive lately."

Zan Partizanne broke the strange tension between the alien, Floralian and gynoid by introducing herself and her sisters. "I am Zan Partizanne, and these are my siblings Francisca and Flamberge," she said stiffly. The two women on either side of her waved when their names were mentioned. "We were indebted to someone who wasn't as sane as we thought he was." She clutched at her robes, very obviously not going to elaborate on the subject.

Magolor and Daroach exchanged a look. Neither of them had given much thought towards what to do immediately after introductions, and it most certainly showed in Daroach's expression; as per usual, it was impossible to tell what Magolor was actually thinking, as what little of his face was visible past his scarf and hood remained impassive and the only other movement he made was a tiny flick of his right ear, which produced an odd jingling noise. Still, it wasn't difficult to figure out what the glance meant. "You have no idea what you're doing, do you?" Dromeda asked irritably.

Magolor clapped his hands together and quite happily said "Absolutely none, but I can show you around the Lor if you like! She's very interesting, I assure you."

Dromeda muttered something about how it obviously wasn't going to be as intriguing or advanced as his own airship, the Scimitar, but everyone else displayed at least some amount of interest, particularly Susie and Francisca, both of whom nodded as soon as the option was brought up.

Magolor's smile became genuine for the first time in over a week. "Well, I'm happy to give you all a tour! Just make sure not to break anything, neither I or the Lor will be pleased with you if you somehow manage it. She's _very_ protective of both Herself and Her Captain."

Nobody missed the thinly-veiled threat in his words, nor that his entire demeanor had shifted in less than a second. Only Taranza seemed wholly unaffected, with Marx only marginally less so, while everyone else felt the full brunt of it- for being so absolutely tiny compared to every other adult around him, Magolor could be awfully intimidating. He got up before it had all that much of a chance to register, though, and cheerfully said "Well, with that in mind, let's get started! The Lor's bigger than She looks, so it might take longer than you'd think, but I'm sure everyone will see something that interests them, and I can try to explain it to the best of my ability!"

Almost everyone seemed a little startled, the two exceptions being Marx and Taranza, who were already mostly used to Magolor's creepily good acting skills thanks to both of them having known him for a few years by now. Dromeda in particular recovered quicker than the rest, his look of discomfort shifting to something that might have resembled respect.

Susie got up first, evidently the most excited to go exploring of the group. Though she didn't like the Ancients or their tech, she had to begrudgingly admit that what they'd created was fascinating, and the Lor was apparently pretty much harmless unless you aggravated Her. "Where to first?" she asked, trying and failing to keep her curiosity from bleeding into her voice.

"The challenge rooms, training rooms and minigames are the closest to us right now," Magolor said, "but I feel they aren't the most interesting. I designed them myself, so they aren't nearly as complex, useful or fascinating as the rest of the Lor, but I can still show you if you're interested!"

"I'd like to see them," Taranza said quietly as he stood. "You probably put a lot of work into them, right? Wouldn't not showing them off be a waste?"

"I suppose," Magolor responded thoughtfully, tapping a mitten-clad hand to the spot where his mouth would be under his scarf. "They're quite outdated, though. As in, 'almost ten years ago' outdated."

"You can at least show us the minigames," Marx huffed. "Adults are boring and I don't get tech stuff, so I'll be bored by everything else." A small smirk formed on his face as he added "You know how I get when I'm bored."

Magolor's expression visibly turned into a scowl for a split second, but it was gone so fast that it left everyone aside from Marx wondering if it had actually happened. "Fair enough," Magolor sighed exasperatedly. "I'd rather you don't destroy anything." He bounced back into his cheery persona in no time, saying "Well, I guess we do have the time for it! Follow me, I'll explain them along the way."

The rest of the group slowly stood up one by one, wondering why, exactly, Magolor had deemed it necessary to make the Scope Shot motion controllers in the shape of actual rocket launchers, and Susie wondering if he made any actual weapons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi yes I'm aware that Taranza was almost definitely being magically controlled by Sectonia, I just thought he probably wouldn't want to tarnish her image more than it already is
> 
> Alrighty, as per usual, feel free to comment, ask questions, or give criticism! I want to make sure everyone is at least somewhat in character. ~~And again, I like answering questions about my headcanons, so go ahead and ask about those too if you feel like it!~~


End file.
